BROCKTON – Congressman Stephen Lynch praised the actions of a federal whistleblower Friday outside a Brockton Veterans Affairs facility where a doctor said two patients lived for years without adequate psychiatric treatment.

Veterans Affairs administrators said they learned of the allegations, made by a staff psychiatrist, in December 2013 and immediately took “corrective actions,” including making sure that annual comprehensive psychiatric exams are provided to every eligible patient.

“That is something that would not have happened without the whistleblower report,” Lynch, D-South Boston, said. “Those (psychiatric) requirements were not observed.”

Lynch toured the 106-bed Community Living Center with Boston VA director Vincent Ng and Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter. The congressman said he spoke Friday with patients, nurses and doctors, who told him they were comfortable with the level of care at the facility.

“I am confident that the level of care of our veterans here is very good,” Lynch said. “That’s not to say that changes weren’t necessary.”

Lynch visited the facility following the release Monday of a letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to the White House detailing a “troubling pattern of deficient patient care at VA facilities nationwide.”

In one Brockton case, one patient with a “100 percent service-connected psychiatric condition” was first examined in 2012, more than seven years after he was admitted. Another patient, admitted in 2003 “with significant and chronic mental health issues”, did not receive a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation until 2011, according to the letter.

Lynch said the lack of follow-through on annual psychiatric evaluations was a problem at the facility but otherwise the patients received quality medical and nursing care.

Neither of the two patients detailed in the report were available during the tour Friday, Lynch said. The tour was closed to the public because of privacy concerns, according to his office.

Lynch said he could not comment on the current condition of the two patients because of federal privacy laws, referring questions to their families. Their names have not been released.

Director Ng said the whistleblower no longer works for the VA in Brockton but declined to detail his employment history.

Ng also said he had “no knowledge” of the psychiatrist attempting to voice his concerns through internal channels prior to last December.

A VA spokeswoman said the agency cannot comment further on the whistleblower because of pending litigation.

Mayor Carpenter said he would like to see a more formal process instituted for vetting patient care complaints coming from the VA to city officials. David Farrell, Brockton’s veterans agent, said he has received several such calls from veterans over the years and followed up informally with nurses at the VA.

Page 2 of 2 - Lynch said that, based on his conversations with VA staff and patients, he trusts that the agency is being honest in its self-evaluations following the whistleblower report. He also said there are internal mechanisms in place for health care providers to bring forward concerns without fear of retaliation.

“The opportunity to be a whistleblower is fully and fairly offered to employees here,” Lynch said. “There would be a lot more whistleblowers if there was reason to have them. That’s not what I’m hearing.”

The whistleblower report was sent to the White House in the wake of a national appointment times scandal, in which the VA has admitted at least 18 veterans died waiting for care in Phoenix and hundreds of others languished on wait lists throughout the country.

One such patient is John Hayes, an 89-year-old World War II veteran from Brockton.

This spring Hayes said he reached out to the auditory department of the VA in Jamaica Plain for a new set of hearing aides. A staff member told him he needed a primary care appointment and to fax over his medical records, Hayes said.

Hayes said he and his regular primary care doctor faxed the information over on April 16. As of mid-June he had not heard from anyone at the VA.